Warzone
by Ranger75
Summary: The Enclave attempts a complete takeover of the wasteland on the scale of the Brotherhood Scourge! Fallout 3, romance MOC / FOC and action / adventure.
1. Introduction

Before I start, I'd like to lay down some background information of both my original character and the environment I've place him in. If you've played Fallout 3, and are familiar with the Wasteland, than this should all be pretty quick. If you haven't play Fallout 3, than go buy it. Now.

No, I wasn't joking. Go. Now.  
**  
****Character:****  
Apparel:** Olive drab combat armor with olive/green cloth tied around knees, neck, and elbows to reduce wear. Wears combat helmet with cloth lining to make more comfortable. The combat armor has been modified with longer sleeves. Black combat boots are also worn, in addition to fingerless black gloves.  
**Weapons:** Combat knife, R91 assault rifle w/ rail spike bayonet, frag grenades, .44 magnum revolver (no scope), DKS-501 sniper rifle. Complete loadout might change, depending on the mission. The combat knife is concealed on the right shin, the .44 magnum is holstered on the left hip, the frag grenades are carried on an ammo belt either slug across the waist or over the shoulders, the sniper rifle is slung across the back on a rifle sling, and the assault rifle is either in the place of the sniper rifle or held in the hands. It is also possible that both the sniper rifle and assault rifle will be slung across the back. Ammunition is carried on the ammo belt, with the same placement as mentioned for the frag grenades. All firearms are able to be threaded with a silencer.  
**Living Quarters:** Lives in Rivet City, Upper Deck. Owns an apartment with the same layout and configuration as a Tenpenny Suite, with all the upgrades. The decorations and such are similar to the "wasteland explorer" house theme.  
**Status: **Very wealthy by wasteland standards, operates a small mercenary company, employing anywhere from ten to forty mercenaries at a time. Still does missions solo, and utilizes mercenaries often. Considerable combat experience almost guarantees mission success. Is very involved with Rivet City, and serves as a home, as mentioned above. Has used status and wealth to enhance life at Rivet City, and a number of expansions have been made to the city. Population size and productivity are up, and market is very lucrative. Most important contribution since addition to Rivet City Council is considered to be the addition of "work points", that is, points that are given for tasks completed. Points can be exchanged for extra food, free Aqua-Pura, store discounts, vacation days, etc. Residents get one or two points for small tasks, such as sweeping the halls or moving equipment. Larger tasks, such as generator maintenance or ammunition manufacturing, will net a resident anywhere from ten to twenty points. The most dangerous tasks, such as harvesting gasoline from derelict vehicles and clearing rubble out of metro tunnels, will give upwards of a hundred points. The more dangerous tasks are only allowed to be done in groups, as a means to minimize injuries. The point system has proven to be very effective, and citizens have reacted very positively towards it.

(My character's name and looks I leave up to your imagination.)  
**  
**

**Environment:****  
Rivet City:** Besides the point system, some other changes have been enacted in Rivet City. Using steel salvaged from derelict automobiles and subway cars, the broken-off bow of the ship has been reattached and drained. The extra space has been put to good use, housing the many new citizens of Rivet City. The city's defenses have also been upgraded. Several heavy machine guns, "Miniguns", have been salvaged from the fighter jets still sitting on the deck of the ship, and have been set up as turrets in strategic positions. Most of the holes in the ship have been patched, and cloth has been gathered and set up against the inside walls, functioning as insulation and adding a softer atmosphere. The generators are run off a combination of Jet, radroach extracts, and turpentine, with some whiskey thrown in for a kick. This solution, however, burns extremely hot, and so anyone working near the generators must wear protective clothing.  
**Lone Wanderer: **The Lone Wanderer's father never left Vault 101. Thus, neither did his son. He is currently living happily in Vault 101, and is in a relationship with Amata. The Overseer stepped down from his position, and has been replaced with the Lone Wanderer's father, James.  
**The Enclave:** The Enclave has acquired a tremendous amount of manpower, but is dangerously low on fuel and ammunition. President Eden is still in command, but Augustus Autumn challenges him more and more frequently.  
**The Wasteland:** The wasteland is considerably larger and more populous than it is presented in Fallout 3. The cities are much farther apart, and the population is much higher. For example, the distance from Rivet City to Megaton is about a two days' walk, with the population of the two cities being two-hundred to three-hundred each.

_ Enjoy the story!_


	2. Setting the Stage

The air was getting colder every day. Winter was coming fast, but I still had a job to do before I could settle back down for the cold months. My body was sore from the hard work of the summer, and I'd earned a couple of new scars. I thought about retiring more and more, but I never did. I was, at least chronologically, near to the beginning of my life, but I already felt like an old man. I knew my job would kill me if I kept at it long enough. But, still I went out every day and scraped and scuffed and shot. I loved it. The adrenaline, the caps, the booze, I loved it all. Besides, I reasoned with myself, what else would I do? I had to quit, but I couldn't.  
I was almost at my job site. This job wasn't for caps, it was personal. I'd put it off many times, but I knew I had to do it. A while back, I'd gotten a tip about some slaves being moved out of Paradise Falls to the foundry at Evergreen Mills. I'll admit, saving slaves should have been a higher priority for me. But, honestly, it was one of the harder jobs for me to do. Seeing people like that destroyed you psychologically. Most of the time they were all starved, raggedy things, some dead, all close to it. Most of them didn't last long, even if they were freed. Still, I had to try. It wasn't good for my karma if I left innocent people to rot in the slave pens.  
My plan was pretty simple. I'd drop whatever guards were freezing outside, free any slaves who were still alive, and then get out. I approached the cliffs at a crawl, I didn't want anyone seeing me. I shimmied down to the ground on a rope, pulling it down behind me, then I rolled under a train car. I clung to the bottom, and waited for someone to pass. Sure enough, a raider wandered past. He was muttering something about having "some hot bitch" tied up in his cabin. I made a mental note to rescue the woman in his cabin, then I dragged him down by his ankles and slashed his throat. After hurriedly searching his body, I found two keys, which I presumed to be to the slave pens and his cabin. After stashing the body, I roadie-ran over to the pens. A second guard was passing out food through the fence, but none of the slaves were getting it. That was a bad sign. I'd never seen a wastelander refuse food before. I smashed the raider against the gate, breaking her neck quickly. I stashed the second body, then returned to the pens. After unlocking the gate, I checked the slaves for any sign of life. They were all frozen stiff. Their bodies hadn't started to decay, and the raiders were still bothering to feed them, so they had probably died a short time ago. Damn it, I thought that if I had been sooner in getting here... But there was nothing I could do for the dead. There was still a girl tied up in the guy's cabin, I could still help her. I climbed back up the cliff, then scrambled over to the cabin overlooking the train tracks.  
I used the guy's key on the door, no need to alert anyone else. I did a quick check over the house, then moved into the bedroom. Sure enough, a young woman was lying on the floor, unconscious and bound. I cut the ropes around her wrists and ankles with my combat knife, taking care not to accidentally cut her. I tried to wake her up, but she just laid there. I gave her a quick once-over, and I found no additional wounds. I didn't have time to wait around, so I threw her over my shoulder and hoofed it out of there. I didn't have time to get back to Rivet City that night, so I set up a small camp or the two of us. The girl was pretty enough, maybe a year or two younger than me. I'd take her back with me to Rivet City, then drop her off wherever she lived once it got warm enough. I put out the fire, and drifted off to sleep.


	3. The Gathering Storm

The next day I managed to get to my safehouse in Springvale. I had these houses all over the wasteland, about seven in total, with the goal being to provide a port in the storm for the mercenaries belonging to my company and for personal use. All of them had relatively large stockpiles of food and medicine, were well fortified, and were kept locked up most of the year. I would have taken the girl to Megaton, but I wasn't too welcome since I'd beaten Moriarty within an inch of his life. The bastard was smacking Nova around for pocketing a few extra caps here and there. Poor girl hated being what she was, but you have to make a living somehow. I always made it a point to slip her a few caps whenever I was passing through. I wanted to put a bullet in Colin's brain, but Simms always seemed to be at my side, tugging on my arm. I don't know why, he hated the guy as much as I did. Long story short, Megaton and I usually didn't mix too well. So, whenever I was in the area, I usually stayed in Springvale. Nice enough place, except for the drug-addicted ex-hooker that was my neighbor and the raider band that had moved into the school. Neither of them was much bother to me, and they got along well enough with each other, with Silver offering her... services in exchange for a variety of chemicals and narcotics from the raiders. The band of hooligans wasn't too bad, they mostly kept within the confines of the school. I'd even spoken briefly to their leader, some idiot named Boppo, who kept on asking me if I would sell his guys some ammo or whatnot. I did give them a crate of ammo, but I mixed some turpentine into the gunpowder, meaning that the rounds would probably kill whoever was shooting them. I had quite a laugh about that. Still, I had no reason to believe that Springvale was any more dangerous than the rest of the wasteland.  
While the girl was still unconscious, I did a once-over of the safehouse. The lock had scratches on it, new ones. I made a mental note to remind Silver that I didn't keep any drugs, so it was pointless for her to try to steal stuff from me. Everything else looked fine, but a radroach was getting fat on several of the freeze-dried meals I kept in the storeroom. I kicked the stupid thing outside and let it freeze. The house itself was fairly comfortable and warm, which meant that it was worth it's weight in gold this time of the year. It's layout was nearly identical to the other ranch houses in the town, but I had added a storeroom/basement, fortified the house to withstand attempted break-ins, and had added two gun safes. A few of them, including this one, even had been patched into the residual power grid. Any major electrical undertaking would easily blow the circuits, but it meant that I didn't have to fool around with gas lighting. That stuff was expensive to keep running, and was dangerous if the device was corroded in any way. I was glad to have a secure place to spend the night, but I was still worried about getting back to Rivet City before the real freeze set in. I wasn't too keen about the idea of loosing a finger or two to frostbite.

The girl started to wake up a few hours after we got to Springvale. Outside, the first snow had started to fall. It was beautiful in its own morbid, cold way. It covered up all the ugliness of the wasteland, and it was a shame that I couldn't see it more. Anyway, she was still pretty out of it for the first few minutes, muttering and nodding off every few seconds. Eventually, she came to. After I calmed her down with something warm to eat and a cold drink, she collected herself and let me sit next to her on the floor. She was pretty, the kind of girl I'd buy more than a few drinks for if we were in a bar together. She looked clean, odd for a wastelander, and her clothes actually fit. That was weird. Her eyes and hair were a matching dark brown, and she stood a few inches shorter than me. It was nice to get to see something beautiful once in a while, I must say. I removed the bandages on her arms while she ate, and I asked a few questions. She said that her name was Amanda. Fair enough. I introduced myself to her, and I asked her what she wanted to do now. I told her where we were, and that I could drop her off at Megaton if she wanted. She asked if she could have some time to think. "Of course," I said, and I showed her to the bedroom. I'd sleep on the couch, which was still infinitely more comfortable than anything else the wasteland had to offer. "You can sleep in here tonight," I told her, "we'll figure everything else out later." She smiled and thanked me, then I left her alone to get some sleep.

I tried to sleep, but couldn't. Something was going on over at the raider compound, there was weapon fire and plenty of yelling. I figured they had all just gotten drunk again, and paid little attention to it. Regardless, I still wasn't sleeping, so I decided to do some paperwork: fill out the paychecks for my mercs, update some maps, so on and so on. The night wore on, and still the raiders kept up the noise. I heard more than one explosion and some automatic weapon fire, but it no longer sounded like it was coming from Springvale, it sounded like they had moved a little ways away, possibly to hit a late-night caravan. I played some soft music, "Maybe" by The Ink Spots, to cover the noise. A few hours, several beers, and many songs later, the raiders were back in Springvale, and still shooting and yelling. By this time, Amanda was awake again. She emerged from the bedroom clad in only a short nightshirt. "What are they carrying on about?" she asked. "No idea," I replied, "But whatever it is, it's had them wound up almost all night. They aren't usually this wound up, maybe we got lucky and they're killing each other." We sat together and ate a very early breakfast, talking a little bit. I realised then how long it had been since I had an actual conversation with someone. No military strategy, no demands of money, just good, clean conversation. It felt good. We talked for a few more minutes, and in the process I became more attached to her by the minute, which usually wouldn't have been a good thing. A few seconds later, there was a swift knocking on the door. I drew my .44 and moved to answer it, motioning for Amanda to get into the bedroom. I opened the door just enough to point my gun at whoever was outside, and moved to see who was bothering me so early.

As it turns out, it was Silver. She looked worried, an emotion she usually reserved for when she misplaced her stash. "You gotta let me in- quick!" she stammered, "Those guys over there are going ballistic! I'll give you the whole story, just let me in!" I let her in, but I made a note to double check my caps once she left. She stumbled in and almost collapsed on the couch, I was surprised to notice that she had a gash on her forehead, like someone had hit her pretty hard. "Alright... t-thanks," she started, but I made her be quiet until I could bandage her up. She was pretty badly cut up on her legs, too, and there were cigarette burns on her stomach, probably from a falling-out with the raiders. I had Amanda give her a full body check, but she found no more cuts or burns. I gave her a stimpack just to be on the safe side. After a few minutes, she started talking again. "Those bastards," she stuttered, "Damn near killed me! Tried to rape me!"

"Why?" I asked, "They just drunk again?"

"No," she said, "They're pissed as hell. Have been all night. Last week... they found a tipped over food truck. Full of pre-war cereal, something called Sugar Guns or something... Anyway, one of the guys knows this ghoul who would take them for some pretty hefty caps, so they decided to get in on that action. They came back with no caps, but a shitload of drugs, stuff I wouldn't even go near! One of the guys said it was "Ultrajet". Anyway, they just tried it out last night, all of 'em got higher than kites. They got their guns out, got all tooled up, than headed over to Megaton. They got their asses handed to them, I saw it happen from my house... Lost most of their gang, only about twenty left now. They were pissed, said something about buyin' some bullshit ammo or something. But whatever happened, they tried to kill me! Probably still looting my house right now!"

"God damn," I muttered, "Amanda, take her into the bedroom, get under the bed- both of you stay there. Take this," I handed her an N99 pistol, "and lock the door!" She nodded, and led Silver into the bedroom. I opened up the gun safe, and placed several of them by the windows and the door. I checked that I had plenty of ammo, which I did. After a few more checks, I grabbed my R91 assault rifle and a satchel of grenades, and set off towards Silver's house.

I set up in the house across the street from her, started setting trip wires and making barricades. I could hear the raiders, they were tearing her place apart, probably still high. After a few minutes, I was ready. I switched my rifle to semi-auto, clicked off the safety, and brought it to my shoulder. Looking through a crack in the boarded-up windows, I had a perfect angle of the door of Silver's place. While I waited, I adjusted my sights for close combat, opening the bore on the rear sight to the max, meaning that I could line up shots almost instantly. I only had to wait a few seconds more, than a pair of raiders walked out with arms full of looted shit. I waited for them to walk about ten yards from the house, took a half-breath, and dropped the larger-looking one with a single shot. He immediately dropped the cartons of cigarettes he was carrying, and tried in vain to stop the blood gushing from his neck. I dropped the other raider before he even knew what happened. The noise and commotion was sure to rouse the raiders. I switched to full auto and waited a few seconds. Exactly as I hoped, several of them tried to rush through the door at once, causing a few to stumble and knock into each other. I fired in bursts of three, spent casings clattering on the ruined floor. I managed to go through an entire clip before they really could figure out where the fire was coming from. By the time I'd reloaded and resumed a firing position, though, they had mostly taken cover and were starting to return fire. I clicked back to semi-auto, and I started picking off exposed legs, arms, heads, whatever poked out of cover. Fortunately for me, raiders were never big on fire discipline. They were directing a lot of fire at me, but they were just spraying. Bullets clattered off the street, windows, even the old tiled roof got torn up. It was only a matter of time, I knew, before one of them would get a lucky shot. For the time being, I loaded another mag and prepared for a long fight.

**Authors Note:** Thanks to every one for the early feedback, and even a few subscribes! Much thanks!


	4. Rolling Thunder

It only took me about thirty minutes to burn through all the ammo I was carrying for my assault rifle, which meant I was down to only my .44 pistol. Still, I had killed over half the remaining raiders, about ten or twelve, and had wounded three more. Quickly, I thought up an escape plan. Grabbing the satchel of grenades I had brought, I took one out and wedged it in the long-vacant deadbolt hole in the front door. Then I angled it so the safety lever wouldn't fall out unless someone bashed in the door. By that time, however, the fuse would have long burned up and the grenade would blow up in their face. So the front door was covered, and it was time to fall back. I slid through the back door, and slogged through the snow towards my house. The snow was close to a foot deep by now, which I knew was bad news if we had to go anywhere that night. As I got closer to the house, I dropped behind a rock, drew my .44, and prepared to whittle down the raiders even more. Dressed in thick winter clothes and moving through deep snow, the raiders made easy targets. I painted the snow red with three of them before they wised up, by this time only about seven remained. They were gathered behind a large boulder about fifty yards away. As I replaced the spent shells in my revolver, the raiders started pumping out what I guess amounted to covering fire, while one moved up on my position with a heavy flamer. I had to suppress a laugh, and waited until she was about fifteen yards out until I put a round into her fuel tank. Her screams were horrible, it convinced the other raiders to give up the fight. As they fell back, I popped one or two of them in the back, and turned home.

Then, in those next five seconds, the Wasteland changed forever. Before my mind could even register what was happening, a flash of green arched it's way into the remaining raiders, melting and burning it's way through skin and bone. Instead of just being an isolated event, the volume of plasma fire increased, building to a crescendo right before the whir of VTOL blades sliced through the night air. I didn't know it at the time, but i was witnessing the beginning of a massive Enclave takeover, an extremely ambitious move to take the whole wasteland by storm. Through reading after-action reports by the Enclave and talking to wastelander survivors, that night became clearer to me. Just several months prior to that night, hundreds of Enclave soldiers, laden with supplies, moved into Raven Rock from the remains of the West Coast. After the collapse of the Western Enclave, they had decided to regroup in the Capitol Wasteland. This gave the Enclave the much-desired manpower they needed to steamroll over any resistance the Wasteland could offer. In just the span of a few hours, Vertibirds razed through both tactical objectives and targets of interest, cutting through anything not wearing Enclave grey. Raider bands, hunters out in the wastes, and most traveling merchants were cut down by plasma fire. Mop up groups then descended, rounding up persons of interest and securing suspected points of resistance. "The Republic of Dave", Big Town, and other small settlements were slagged in the initial assault. Girdershade was spared initially due to it's complete unimportance, and the few living there were already long gone before an Enclave patrol located the town. The Citadel was laid to siege, and was completely cut off from the rest of the wastes. Rivet City and Megaton, as the two most important cities in the region, were quickly secured and place under strict Enclave control. Underworld and the Outcasts in Fort Independence chose to fight back, and both wiped out many times their number of soldiers before succumbing to the sheer weight of manpower the enclave possessed. After several patrols failed to return from recon in the Dunwitch Building, it was demolished by a Vertibird bombing run. Of course, at the time, I had no idea what was going on.

The entire wasteland, several hundred square miles, was completely under Enclave control before I even had time to blink. Before I knew it, the dark shape of Vertibirds soared against the white winter sky, dropping off soldiers and firing the odd bit of plasma. I reverted to my soldier's instincts, and raced back to the cabin. I was too late, though. I heard screams and a gunshot as I reached to back of the cabin. Then I broke into a sprint, dropping low to avoid detection. I rounded the cabin and saw three Enclave soldiers, two armor-covered troopers and a officer. Amanda was kneeling on the ground in front of them, tears running down her cheeks, with Silver lying in a pool of blood beside her. She had a hole through her forehead, and the Enclave officer was loading another round into his pistol. I'm proud to say I didn't debate what to do for a second. Pulling out my pistol, with only one round left in the chamber, I quickly moved out into the open.

"Stop! Put your gun down! ON THE GROUND! NOW!" I started screaming at the officer. He smiled sheepishly, then lowered his gun into the snow. The soldiers, however, weren't having any of it. The promptly drew their plasma rifles and shouldered them, aiming square at me. Amanda stopped weeping, and started to raise up from the ground. I waved her down with my free hand. I didn't want her catching a plasma bolt while this little transaction went down.

"Alright... alright..." the officer said calmly, "I'll let you think about what you're doing here. Look, we saw what you did to those raiders. We have you on file, we know how much some of the people here like you. Really, we don't need to kill you. Just leave us the girl, and you can be on your way." Not a chance, I thought. Amanda looked at me, eyes wide with fear. I shook my head at her, and leveled my pistol with the officer's nose.

"Not happening." I stated, thumbing the action on my pistol. The officer sighed, and looked at the two troopers. We weren't going to live very much longer if I didn't come up with something fast. Just as the officer started to open his mouth, I said the first thing that popped into my head.

"We're with the Enclave. Deep cover scouts. We're supposed to root out early warning signs of any resistance." Amanda looked confused, then realized what I was trying to do. The officer was slightly surprised by this claim, then his eyes narrowed.

"No records of that. Besides, I already told you we know who you are. Besides," he continued, "the Enclave doesn't collaborate with scum like you."

"Maybe not," I said, "But you can't kill us until you're sure."

"Sure... sure," he muttered, "Have it your way." He gestured to the soldiers, "Take their stuff, make sure we get their weapons!" Then to us, "We'll kill you both in front of the entire city. You're just prolonging the inevitable." He then spoke just to me. "Last chance" he said, glancing at Amanda. I spat on his boots.

Next thing I knew, we were in Megaton. Enclave soldiers were still running riot through the town, taking anything and anyone they wanted. The officer led us both to a small, one room house. The bed was broken, and some blood was half-cleaned up on the floor.

"Jail's full," he explained, "you stay here tonight. We'll sort you both out in the morning." With that, he turned and left, bolting the door behind him. The lights had probably long since broken, so the crappy little shack was only illuminated by the flash of gunfire shining through the small window. While I checked around for any possible means of escape, I realized that Amanda was watching me with sad eyes.

"You didn't have to do that," she mumbled. Giving up on my futile escape aspirations, I sat next to her on the bed. "You should have left me."

"No," I said, pulling her close. "I'm not going to abandon you. I've never left anyone behind. I saved you for a reason, and I'm going to do my best to get you out of here alive." For a moment, her gaze fixed on mine, and I saw her thoughts reflected in her eyes. Fear, sorrow, even a glint of hope. She really was beautiful. I blinked, and suddenly her face was only an inch away from mine. She shut her eyes slowly, and I closed the gap between us. We kissed, our faces lit by the fire of a burning city, our ears filled with the sounds of fear and death, and our skin covered in blood and dirt. Our hearts, however, we gave to each other, free from worry and caution.

After about an hour, she and I laid back onto the bed, exhausted. I felt as if my body was fused to hers, that I couldn't move if I wanted to.

"Get some sleep," I whispered into her ear, as I shut out the sounds of war and drifted off to sleep.


	5. Written by the Victor

Warzone

Both Amanda and I were awake and dressed well before the Enclave officer returned. We had been up since the early morning, waiting for what appeared to be the end of the line, for both of us. Though I had only known her for a short time then, Amanda was quickly becoming less of a liability and more of a friend, especially considering the night before. We had talked a bit, but neither of us really wanted to think about what was going to happen in only a few hours. My crappy cover story only merited a quick document check, then we would be put on the Enclave's ever-shortening "to kill" list. Even though there was no window to our little shack, we both knew that the Enclave were still transitioning into the status of occupiers of Megaton, we still heard the odd shot ring out, and the smell of smoke filled the single room, we even heard the concussive thuds of bodies being dumped. We heard drunken slurs and party noises coming from the direction of the saloon. The whole city seemed to be smoldering out through the morning, the shots became fewer and farther in between, and the partying increased as more troops completed the takeover.

The officer came for us soon afterwards, pounding on our door and demanding us to get out. We waited for him to unlatch the door, and moved outside. The harsh sun hurt our eyes, reflecting off the greyed and beaten-down snow. The air was heavy with a mixture of morning fog and smoke, and the temperature had dropped even farther then it was the night before. The troopers had cold-weather parkas and fleeces, but Amanda and I shivered in the cold. Most of the population of Megaton was still shut inside of their houses, fearful of their new enemy. Some were outside, timidly chatting with some of the lax soldiers. Most of the Megaton residents outside, though, were stiff and frozen, rolled into a pile on the thinly frozen pond that the atomic warhead rested in. I recognized several of the faces in that pile, and I knew that they were going to pay for all of this. The saloon had transformed into a kind of officer's club, with several officers warming up with drinks, holding reluctant-looking girls close to them. The Enclave seemed to have been quick in setting up shop in Megaton. There were several communications dishes set up on top of the Craterside Supply, and some Enclave scientists were dumping noxious-looking fuel into a couple of glowing generators. There were several stacks of discarded weapons, either looted guns that weren't Enclave-caliber, or weapons that got too banged-up in the assault to be of any use. There also seemed to a few ammunition boxes piled outside the Megaton Clinic, with what looked to be my equipment cast alongside.

As Amanda and I were taking all of this in, the officer we had met the night before walked up to us. He simply grinned and nodded to a sweater-wearing soldier behind him. The soldier raised a cloth-wrapped laser rifle, and motioned for us to move up the walkway, towards the saloon. I noticed that almost none of the soldiers were wearing their power armor; the heating units in them must not be easy to maintain. Amanda's eyes had started to water up a bit, and her face looked almost blank. I took her hand in mine, so the soldiers wouldn't see her shaking. Our escort snickered at that, but I silenced him with an icy glare. My mind was spinning, trying to come up with something, anything that could get us out of this. When we stopped in front of the saloon, I noticed that several groups of Megaton citizens were gathering outside. Apparently the Enclave wanted to educate them on what happened if you fell out of line. The poor people, almost all of them glaring at the soldiers and officers, gave me an idea. As we rounded the walkway in front of the bar, I put my face next to Amanda's and asked her, "Do you trust me?" At this her eyes widened, but she looked at me and nodded several times. I stopped walking and took a deep breath. After a second, the guard caught up with me, and prodded me in the back with his rifle. The second I felt the prodding of his weapon at my back, I turned sharply to my side, sending his weapon-laden arms flying forward. At this, I grabbed his rifle and fired two quick shots into the crowd of soldiers at the bar, a few more shots into any weapon that I could see, and one last shot into the stomach of the soldier I had taken it from. After that, I tore the regulator off of the back of his gun and threw the weapon, firing wildly, into another huddled group of Enclave soldiers. Then, I tossed the screaming, wounded soldier into the officer who had been planning to execute us. In the few seconds it took for all of this to take place, the vast majority of people, citizen and soldier alike, were running for the discarded weapons, dashing for cover, or simply fighting whoever happened to be next to them. In less than half a minute, I had started a riot. I picked up Amanda and carried her off before she knew what was happening. In the confusion, I ducked into the Megaton common house, making sure to bolt the door behind me. I set Amanda down in one of the chairs.

"Are you alright?" I asked. She nodded in response, but I still checked her for any form of injury. She was fine, except for being a little shaken up. Mentally going through the steps I would have to accomplish to ensure our escape, I turned to the common house locker. I kicked open one lock after another, and eventually found a loaded pistol that had survived the Enclave search. I handed it to Amanda, and told her to stay put. At this, she froze up. "Wait, you're leaving me here!" she asked in a hoarse whisper.

"No, I'll be right back," I said, taking her hand yet again. "I'm going to get us both out of here, ok?" She relaxed, and looked a little less fearful. "I'll go out through the roof vent," I told her, "Shoot anyone who comes through that door. Don't let anyone in." She nodded, then positioned herself in a corner facing the door, pistol trained on the bolted entrance. I nodded to her, and then hoisted myself into the shaft used for air circulation in the common house. The cold metal stuck to my skin, making my elbows and knees bloodied by the time I got to the roof.

The entire city was in chaos, a repeat of the night before. Only this time, the Enclave had discarded their power armor and energy weapons, victims of the cold climate. I saw just as many Enclave troopers go down as I did Megaton citizens. People were fighting with knives, shards of glass, their bare hands, anything they could use to kill. I saw two troopers pushed over the walkway railing, taking the seven-story fall from the bar to the ground with a sickening crunch. When I looked to see how they fell, I saw Jericho stuffing a new magazine into his assault rifle. I waved to him, but he was already off in his own world and didn't see me. Several citizens who were handy with guns were setting pretty effective kill zones, hunkering down behind reinforced barriers and picking off Enclave soldiers as they came near.

After getting my bearings, I took off across the rooftops, looking for a way down. As I made my way down the side of a frozen water pipe, several shots impacted on the metal sheets around me. I hoped Amanda and I could make it through this without taking a shot in the process. When I hit the ground, I took off running towards the remains of the Clinic. I rounded a corner, and came face-to face with a small squad of Enclave troops. I quickly pulled back, but they had seen me. I grabbed for my gun, but realized that it wasn't there. Running out of options, I quickly elbowed the first soldier to round the corner in his face, then gouged his eyes with my thumbs. I pushed him into the other three soldiers, then picked up his discarded plasma rifle. I pumped a few plasma blasts into the troopers, then breezed past them. I pushed on to the Clinic, putting a few shots into anything wearing Enclave grey. By the time I got to the Clinic, my rifle was empty. I searched through several boxes, and then found my gear. I quickly donned my combat armor and various weapons, shouldering my assault rifle. Clicking it over it semi-auto, I stepped back a few yards, so I could see the top of the Craterside Supply. Sure enough, the scientists I had seen earlier were frantically talking into ham radios hooked into the satellite dishes, which I knew to be a communications array. I dropped to one knee, adjusted my sights, took a deep breath, and settled my sights on the closest scientist. I took the shot, and the scientist's helmet-visor imploded, red blood splattering onto his white uniform. I quickly took another shot at the remaining scientist, but missed. Instead, the shot impacted on one of the generators powering the array, causing a huge explosion. I barely had enough time to duck behind some debris before the entirety of Craterside Supply was ripped apart and transformed into thousands of pounds of shrapnel, spraying over much of the city. I was, oddly, unharmed, and the threat of outside Enclave support had been neutralized.

Now that I had my stuff, the next step was to go and collect Amanda. I made my way back up to the common house the way I had come down. The fighting had died down a little, with the explosion maiming or scaring many off the would-be combatants. I got back to the common house, and was pleased to find that the door was still bolted. I knocked and called out, and the door opened. Inside, I found Amanda covered in blood, with two Enclave soldiers lying on the floor. They had both been killed by headshots, one shot each. I gave Amanda a "What the hell?" look, and she just shrugged in return.

"Are you ok?" I asked, quickly patting down the dead soldiers for anything useful.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied, "I head a huge noise outside, was that you?"

"Um… yeah. Things got a little messy."

"I'm sure. Are we ok to get out of here?"

"We're good. Are you ok to run?"

"Yeah, let's go." she said, and I lead her outside.

We quickly ran onto the walkway, and I directed her towards the water processing plant.

"I know another way out," I explained, "The gate's going to be way too contested for us to push through."

We quickly gained access to the plant, and swept through the processing room. I walked over to the pipe that connected the desalinization tumbler to the main water pipe. While I was working open an access hatch, I told Amanda to go over to the terminal and run a system flush. No reason for us to get drowned on the way out. In a few minutes, both of us had completed our tasks. I put all of our gear in my duffel bag, and dropped it down the pipe. It made a soft whooshing sound as it traveled down, meaning that the pipe was still clear, a small miracle considering that the building right next to it had been blown to pieces. "You're gonna have to trust me again." I told Amanda. She rolled her eyes, but walked over to the pipe. I held her close to me, and stepped into the gaping pipe. The metal was still slick with quickly-freezing water, so we came down without any cuts or bruises. This particular form of exiting Megaton had been used by me several times before, when I needed a quick way out of the city. The main water pipe fed off into a sewer run-off, a couple hundred yards south of the city. When we finally stopped sliding, I snapped on a light and quickly located my duffel bag. It looked like nothing was broken in our descent, and I re-equipped myself quickly. I gave Amanda her pistol back, and we did a quick ammo check. With everything looking good, we slogged further down the sewer, towards where I knew we could bed down for the night. I had to drop a few feral ghouls along the way, but they were easy enough to deal with. After about thirty minutes of walking, we came to a subway station platform. It was relatively safe, both of the direct above-ground access points had collapsed, meaning the only ways left to get in or out was the Megaton pipeline and a locked sewer cover, to which I had one of the few keys. I pulled out a couple of mattresses from an old ticket booth, and started to break up a wooden table for firewood. Amanda gave me a hand getting the fire started, then I left her to set up camp while I checked our perimeter. I strung some tripwires, rigged a shotgun, and threw down a few frag mines. I assumed the traps would keep the rats and feral ghouls off of the two of us long enough to catch some rest.

When I returned to the station, Amanda had spread out a bedroll for each of us, and had a nice little fire going. I dumped my gear in the ticket booth, and pushed my mattress closer to hers. She looked tired; she had been through a lot in the past few days. She had changed into a white undershirt and shorts, the tunnels got pretty hot, despite the cold outside. I changed my clothing to match hers, and laid down on my bedroll. We both sat in silence for a few minutes, then Amanda rolled over onto her back and looked at me questionably. "Hey," she said softly, "You've saved my life already a couple of times, I don't know much more about you than your name. Tell me about yourself."

"What do you mean?" I replied, scooting even closer to her.

"Well," she said, "Tell me where you came from, your family, things like that."

"Hm…" I murmured, "That's a… long story. You sure you're interested?"

"Yeah, I'd love to hear more about my knight in shining armor," she said. We had been shifting closer to each other throughout the time we had been talking. She had come to rest with her head against my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her waist.

"Alright…" I started, "Well, I was born in Rivet City twenty-three years ago. My dad was the priest of St. Monica's church, and my mom just kind of found odd jobs around the ship, cleaning the deck or sweeping the hallways, that kind of thing. They didn't have an affair or anything, my dad didn't have any vows to keep. You see, he wasn't actually an ordained priest. He just had an interest in things like that, and the people of the city gave him a stack of bibles and told him that he could use an empty room for a church. Anyway, they were good parents. Their only big rule was that I wasn't allowed to leave the ship. I was ok with that though, I had some pretty good friends. I didn't go to school or anything, my mom taught me about how to build and fix things, and I helped her around when I had some free time. My dad taught me about right and wrong, made sure I read my bible, and kept me out of fights and minding the few school books they managed to buy for me. All of that lasted until I was seventeen. My dad and this other guy, a local shop owner, pretty much hated each other. My dad wasn't prone to hate, but this guy was an asshole. He was always hitting on my mom, leaving beer bottles shattered against the church door, all kinds of stuff. Anyway, one night he came around just as my dad and I were locking up the church. I had gone to pick up some dinner just as the market was closing and when I came back, this guy was lying dead on the church floor, a knife in his neck. My dad didn't own a knife, or a gun, so I was sure this was self-defense. I forced my dad to go home before security found out about it, and then I cleaned and remade the crime scene. I cut myself several times, covered myself in the guy's blood, put several of my bloody handprints around the room. I then burned the jacket my dad had been wearing, and covered my own clothes in cuts and blood. By the time Rivet City Security showed up, it was obvious to them that I had killed the guy. I barely even had time to say good-by to my family before a trial convicted me and sentenced me to exile. The only things I had left from my life were a bible from my dad and a pistol from my mom, both of whom I almost had to threaten into not telling the truth. Anyway, I was out on my own out in wasteland. The first couple of weeks were pretty bad; I drifted around from town to town, scraping together barely enough caps to survive. Eventually, I took a few merc jobs. As most things in the Wasteland do, that snowballed. Soon I was paying other mercs to take contracts for me, and I had earned enough to pay my way back into Rivet City. My folks were... gone... by then, but it was still good to be home. I settled in and let the caps do the talking, and pretty soon I was changing the city around, and I even started to-"

I stopped short. I looked down at Amanda and saw that her head was lolling softly against my chest, and she was gently snoring. "And then," I whispered, "I met a beautiful girl who seemed to be a bullet magnet and get me into more trouble than she's worth. I think I love her." I kissed her head, and fell asleep.

**AUTHORS NOTE**: Sorry about taking so long to update, I had writers block and high school homework. On a different note, I now have this story all planned out and will be updating regularly. After this is concluded, I'll begin writing Warzone: New Vegas. I'm working on planning that out right now. It's going to be much larger than Warzone, and be set- obviously- in the Mojave Wasteland. Again, thanks to all of those who review and even subscribe to my story, it really means a lot.


	6. Soft Spot

We moved down the abandoned subway line the next morning. I was beginning to piece together a plan of where to lay low, but that really wasn't what was on my mind. Amanda and I made small talk; she filled me in about her life before we met. I let her do the talking, I just enjoyed hearing her voice. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of there being an "us". However, I really didn't have much to go on, other than some flirty body language. I watched her talk, feeling slightly longing every time her eyes met mine. She told me about her mom and dad, who worked at Canterbury Commons, and her sister, who had recently gotten married off to a wealthy caravan owner and moved into Tenpenny Tower. This gave me the opportunity I had been looking for, to make sure she wasn't already taken.

"So..." I asked, "Are you... you know... with someone? Like your sister?"

"No," she answered with a sigh, "Still single. Why do you ask?"

_Ouch. _"Just curious," I muttered.

"You wouldn't be... interested in me," she asked with a small smile, "Would you?"

_Oh... what the hell. _"I don't really know." I said, stalling to think up something witty. _Yeah, I do know, _I thought to myself. "I mean... you make me feel..." I said slowly, her eyes searching mine. "Overwhelmed." Her shoulders slumped a little. "No... not in a bad way!" I said, blushing. It was the first time I'd blushed since I was twelve. "I guess... I think I do... Yeah, I'd say I'm interested," I finished. She said nothing, but smiled and continued walking. After about ten more minutes of walking in silence, while I bathed in temporary self-hate for being so awkward, she turned to me.

"Are you interested in the sex?" she asked, "Or interested in _me?_"

"Well... uh..." I stammered, "You. Of course."

"Hm." She walked on, her smile returning. We walked in silence for the next couple of hours, until we reached the next subway station, where we would set up camp. We put down out packs, and set up our bedrolls. We sat down for an early dinner, and I was still worried that I had offended her in some way. I was about to apologize for earlier when she started to speak. "I've never really been... you know... close with anyone," she started. She leaned in, inches away from my face. "I was thinking about earlier and... I, uh, well..." She closed the gap, kissing me softly. She pulled away quickly, her face turning deep red. Without saying anything, and feeling deeply relieved, I pulled her close to me. I could feel her heart beating quickly next to mine. She moved her arms around my waist, hugging me gently. Her lips found mine again... and again... and again.

Our early dinner ended up being a late one.

**Author's Note: **Just a short little update. I'll probably be putting up smaller updates to break up the space between the larger chapters, and keep the story updated. Thanks again to anyone who reads or reviews this, it helps out a lot!


	7. Burning Brighter

I couldn't get to sleep that night, I had too much to think about. I'd had flings with more than a few girls, but I felt that Amanda was different. She was beautiful, no doubt about that. However, I was hoping that this would be something different. To be honest, I was pretty lonely at this stage of my life. I spent every day around soldiers, talking weapons and tactics. I spent most of my days out fighting, shooting, killing. It would be nice to have someone to give me some balance. However, other worries were creeping into my mind. What if she was just using me to get back home, or to stay alive? Maybe she just thought that some romance would force me to stay with her?

I quickly pushed all of these thoughts to the back of my mind. _I'd stick with her anyways, _I thought to myself. _She knows that. She's not just using me. _Anyway, I was secure enough in my feelings that something like that, if it came to pass, wouldn't emotionally destroy me. And Amanda hadn't given me any reason to believe she was using me. I rolled over and watched her sleep. I felt calmly assured as I watched her chest rise and fall slowly, her hair cascading over her sleeping eyes. The small smile on her lips hadn't left since we'd talked earlier. _Yes, this is going to be something different for sure. _

I adjusted my pillow and stared at the crumbling, ancient ceiling, letting myself finally fall asleep.

The next morning, I had all but forgotten my worries of the previous night. Amanda had wasted no time in telling me how happy and excited she was to be with me. She started to get to get really touchy-feely, wanting to hold my hand, mess with my hair, rub my back. I just let her affection wash over me. The caution and awkwardness of the day before had vanished, and both of us were on an emotional high from the events of the past few days. We set off after a quick breakfast, I cleaned my assault rifle as we walked, Amanda helped me hold the parts while continuing to fill me in about her life: what she liked, didn't like, where she'd been, the time she'd killed a mirelurk, that sort of thing. Unlike yesterday, I participated in the conversation, eager to learn as much as I could about her. We both seemed to open up to each other quickly.

I reassembled my rifle quickly before we got to the next station. I didn't need a Pip-Boy to tell me that the place was crawling with ghouls, their growls and moans echoed throughout the ruins of the abandoned platform. Amanda and a dropped to our knees and moved behind a concrete bench, then I popped up and did a quick once-over of the station. I counted about twelve ghouls, who were currently gorging themselves on a small pack of mole rats. Amanda reached for the pistol I had given her, but I silently waved her down. "Here," I whispered, handing her my assault rifle. "Aim for the chest, short bursts. Keep them off our backs; we'll make a push to higher ground." My plan was to move up the ancient escalader and take up a position in the ticket booth that was sure to be upstairs. I silently drew my sniper rifle and clicked the safety off, pushing a round into the chamber. Slow rate of fire, low magazine size. I was depending on Amanda to keep me alive.

On my signal, we broke out of our hiding place at a full sprint. I didn't want to shoot before we got to a stable location, but Amanda plugged shots into two or three of the ghouls. We pushed upstairs and, like I'd hoped, there was a good-sized ticket booth with a commanding view of the platform. We both sprinted towards it, by now we had about a dozen ghouls on our tail. I kicked open the booth door, and found myself face-to-face with a ghoul roamer. I stuck the muzzle of my rifle in his screaming mouth and pulled the trigger, spraying his brain onto the wall. I slid the limp body off of the end of my gun, and cycled the bolt. Amanda was starting to put down some ghouls, too. I quickly lined up a shot on a ghoul who had gone under wearing combat armor, and squeezed the trigger. My shot found the base of his neck, the .308 cartridge almost severing his head. I took down three more ghouls in a similar fashion, trying for headshots to make the most of my ammo. I loaded another magazine and moved to finish the ghouls, though Amanda had done a fine job and most of the alive ones were crawling around, bleeding out. I took back my assault rifle after finishing off the survivors, and congratulated Amanda. She had done a good job. She blushed, and suggested that we moved on.

We walked another three-hundred yards before we came to the end of the tunnel. Amanda shot me a questioning look, but I waved her off. I gestured to something you could barely make out in the darkness: a pair of handcarts! I tuned to her and said gently, "The one on the left goes to Greyditch. I have another safehouse there, it's where I'm going. The one on the right should take you closer to home, to Canterbury Commons. It's your choice... tell me when you're ready." I started to get slightly worried. It wasn't my place to force Amanda to come with me, but I would hate it if she left me. _I did the impossible, _I thought, _and found myself girlfriend in this shitty wasteland. I hope this isn't how we end._

Amanda thought for a few minutes, pacing back and forth. Finally, she fixed her eyes on mine, and walked close to me. "You've saved my life at least three times, let me follow you this far, and right now you might be the only hope for fighting the enclave. I love my family, but... they can wait." Before I could say anything else, she added, "Just promise you'll take me to see them after all of this is over, alright? I couldn't stand not knowing." She didn't wait for an answer, instead taking my hand and leading me onto the handcart. As the cart trundled down the tracks, I looked at her. Her eyes flashed up when I started to speak. "I..." I started, "This means a lot to me. Thank you, I don't... know what I would have done without you." She smiled, her eyes shifted modestly downwards. "Amanda?" I continued, "I love you."

Now it didn't matter how long this fight would take, or how hard it would be. I finally had someone who would stand by me through anything. I didn't tell her this, but Amanda was the first person I'd said "I love you," to. _I was right, _I thought to myself, _she is different. _


	8. Holding Fast

We made it to Greyditch without much trouble, aside from some on-the-fly maintenance on the hand cart. After successfully docking the cart in the sewer waystation, Amanda and I trudged through the snow, now over two feet deep, towards the town itself. Even though the distance was only about one hundred yards, we were both out of breath by the time we got to the door of the safehouse. "Here we are," I muttered into the freezing wind, quickly dialing the combination into the front lock.

We both stumbled inside, closing out the cold air behind us. The Greyditch safehouse was much more comfortable than the one in Springvale, but at the same time just as fortified. Due to the spacious layout of the two-story townhouse, we had much more room than in Springvale. In addition, the safehouse was furnished with mostly-intact furniture scavenged from the surrounding houses, and had enough supplied to last two people more than a year. I unpacked our bags, and started a fire to dry out our clothes. I didn't have to worry much about the Enclave spotting our fire, Greyditch had been abandoned for a couple of years now, ever since that problem with the ants, and so was barely worthy of any recon. Besides, there was no way that even Enclave-grade armor could function in the cold outside for extended periods. We were safe at Greyditch, as well as dry and warm.

With the fire going, I hung up my clothes to dry, and changed into a more confortable pair of Brahmin-leather pants and a clean white shirt. Amanda did the same, and changed into a pair of tight-fitting white pants with knee-boots and a long-sleeved brown leather jacket. The regular household maintenance we did seemed almost mundane in comparison to the firefights we had gotten ourselves into over the past few days, but it had to be done. We checked the house for leaks or cracks, made sure the storage basement was clear of vermin, resealed and locked the windows and doors, and double-checked all of the weapons and ammo. By the time the day was done, we were both confident in our ability to ride out the impending winter in comfort. In this kind of weather, a house like ours was invaluable. The constant snowstorms of the winter seasons could bury the wasteland in up to five feet of snow, killing any exposed human in minutes.

As the day closed, I trimmed the fire down low and made my way upstairs. Too exhausted to do any more work, I threw my clothes on the floor and crawled into bed, bidding Amanda goodnight. Less than an hour later, however, she opened the door to my room, waking me up. "I can't get to sleep," she complained in an exasperated voice. "My room is just _so_ cold! Can I stay with you tonight?"

"Um," I mumbled, "I don't think my bed can fit both of us…" However, my feeble argument was defeated by her pitiful puppy-dog eyes. Amanda ended up sleeping on top of me, but I wasn't about to complain.

For the next few weeks, we fell into a routine. The day started by preparing breakfast and rechecking the condition of the safehouse, then I would usually give Amanda a quick lesson in close combat or weapons use. We both took turns monitoring the ham radio for any unusual activity in the wasteland. The Enclave stopped their search for us after just a few days, the deep snow effectively putting a stop to all outside operations until the spring thaw. We entertained ourselves with some pre-war board games and books, taking the opportunity to enjoy each other's company. We usually spent the nights snuggled together on the couch, listening to pre-war records or pouring over wasteland maps and other documents. I'm sure that Amanda's room wasn't any colder than mine was, not that either one of was really pretending that was the reason for sleeping together.

All in all, I look back on that winter as one of the best times of my life. The more time I spent with Amanda, the deeper in love with her I fell. Cuddled up next to each other by the fire, working out radio protocols together, sparring together during the morning, making love at night, the entire experience felt unreal. Truth be told, I almost forgot about our problems. I would have been content to spend the rest of my life at Greyditch, sharing a romantic daydream with Amanda. However, the world seemed to have other plans.

Two days after the spring thaw started, short bursts of code began to flare on out radio. Amanda dismissed it as interference, and insisted that I go check the antenna, but I was thoughtful.

"Hold on," I said, "I recognize this code… No! I wrote this code!" The numbers flashing over our radio set matched up perfectly with the radio protocols I had established for my mercenaries. "Someone's still out there. Someone's still alive."


	9. Flash Point

We had both been jarred out of our serenity by the recent news. For months, the Enclave takeover was far from the forefront of both our minds. Now, however, with days until the spring thaw would allow travel to resume across the wastes, we both had to confront the wasteland that had been howling at our door all winter long. It was a prospect that neither of us had been excited about. However, our anxiety wasn't from a lack of preparation. Amanda had transformed into quite the fighter, toning her body to where she could easily keep up with me for an extended sparring match. She was also getting to be more and more confident with firearms, her shooting style being much more aggressive and forceful than my own, more cautious method. We had been sharpening the literal and figurative bayonets all winter long, and now both of us were quietly anxious to see what kind of beast we would be fighting. Despite my experience with the capitol, nothing could really prepare either Amanda or myself for what we might find in the wastes.

We spent our last night in Greyditch somberly packing up, preparing to put our shelter into mothballs until it was needed again. As Amanda and I lay together that night, there was none of the warmth we had felt earlier. Both of us were fearful about what would happen in the coming days, the next weeks. I, more than anything, was concerned for Amanda. I was proud of how she had progressed, but I still felt some guilt about being the one who was leading her into this fight. We both lay together in silence for quite some time, until Amanda rolled onto her side and faced me.

"Hey," she said with a small smile, "No matter what happens, I'm glad we're together. I'm glad I followed you. So let's enjoy our last night here, while we know we're both still safe, hm?"

"That's a great idea," I replied with a kiss.

"Shh..." she said, putting a finger on my lips. "Let me take care of you." She smiled seductively, showing her white smile- almost unearthly for a wastelander. She threw the covers off the bed, a devilish look in her brown eyes. Then she straddled me, throwing back her dark hair. I moved my hands up to her waist, taking time to admire the beautiful woman that I was sharing this dream with. Her god-given curves, her soft face, every one of her body's nuances is still so deep in my mind that I can recall it like it was yesterday. She turned to face the wall, and slowly lifted off her nightshirt. Her toned, yet completely feminine back merged into her lower half beautifully, a fact that took both my hands to appreciate. Her head turned towards me, eyes rolling slightly back. I moved one hand up to her neck, and gently guided her down, so that she was lying completely on top of me. I gently kissed her ear, whispering, "My turn."

Several hours later, Amanda laid beside me, gently snoring into her pillow. _No matter what happens now, _I thought, _we still have each other. We still have this._


	10. Second Wind

The next morning, we packed up our gear and left Greyditch. Our equipment had placed the signal at the MDPL-13 power station, which would require us to cross the river to get there. Once we got to the edge of the town, I laid out our route to Amanda. Today, we would travel to an old Bed and Breakfast that I knew had an undamaged cellar. We would camp there for tonight, then cross the river near Meresti Trainyard. From there, it was only another day's walk to the power station.  
Amanda and I walked with the safeties off on our assault rifles, but kept a relaxed pose. For our trip, Amanda had assembled a loadout like mine, but also reflected her own style of combat. Instead of a sniper rifle, she was using a combat shotgun, modified with a choke that gave it more substantial range. Solid slugs would have been a welcome addition to our arsenal, but they were a bitch to find. In addition, both of us had changed into warm weather clothing. I had left my combat helmet and armor back at Greyditch, both Amanda and I favoring speed over power for this particular trip. With any luck, we wouldn't get into any large confrontations on the way to the power station. We had modified some leather armor to where it wouldn't impede our movements and was comfortable to wear, but would protect against most small arms fire.  
After a short lunch, we brushed ourselves off and moved on the road again, giving the trail a wide berth in case of any Enclave movements. After a few minutes of walking she stopped short, causing me to bump into her. "Get down!" she whispered urgently. I moved several feet to her left, going prone in a clump of wasteland shrubbery. She followed close behind, whispering, "I hear some clattering, sounds like a group. What do we do?" "Stay low, wait until they pass. We'll figure out what to do once they've moved on."  
Sure enough, about a minute later, a large brahmin cart came into view. It was guarded by three Enclave soldiers, only one of whom was wearing power armor. The soldiers were relaxed, their laser rifles slung across their backs. The lead soldier, the one in the armor, stopped the brahmin.

"I gotta piss, take five," he said, his voice muffled by his helmet filter. The other two nodded and moved to the side of the cart, happy to be taking a quick break. I signalled to Amanda and we both shouldered our weapons, instead drawing identical combat knives. I nodded to her, crouch-walking over to the soldier on the left. Rising up, I kicked in his knee, angling my knife into his throat. Amanda did the same to the soldier on the right, and I slid the bodies back into the brush. Amanda used the dirt of the path to cover up the blood smears, like I had told her. After we were done, I pulled Amanda close to me.

"Wait here for a second, I'll take care of the other guy. Be back in a sec." I walked briskly in the direction the third man had walked off in. I quickly spotted him, apparently finished with his business. I went to the ground, took some cover, and waited for him to pass. After he was a couple of steps beyond me, I rose up, sheathing my knife. On his shiny Tesla Armor there were four glowing power conduits, located on the shoulders. To me, these were just four big glowing targets. If I could destroy the conduits, his armor would go into a lockdown state. I drew my .44, lining up a shot on his right shoulder, hoping to take out two at once. I held my breath and took my first shot. I didn't even wait for the sound of an impact to switch to the left shoulder, taking another shot. I was notified of my success by a loud power discharge, followed by a dull thud as the soldier toppled over. I walked over to him, replacing the spent shells in my .44 as I went. His armor was locked down, preventing any movement or escape from the inside. He was screaming at me, but I ignored him. I let the wasteland have that kill, speedily walking back to Amanda. She had already sat herself in the cart's driver seat, and I joined her in the passenger side. She kicked the brahmin into motion, while I quietly drew our map. After a minute, she turned to face me. Her pupils were dilated and her face was flushed, she was still full of adrenaline from what I remembered was her first kill since Megaton. She kissed me deeply, then whispered in my ear, "Have any trouble?".

"No," I replied, sparing her the details. She shrugged, sitting back in her seat. "This thing'll get us there much faster, right?" "Right," I said "We should be at our first stop within an hour."

"Hey," I added, "You did good back there. Quick and clean." She beamed, still trying to get the brahmin to get up a good clip. _Well, we finally did it, _I thought_, Just baby steps now... but, hell. We've taken the fight to them._


End file.
